Do Ceasefires Kill?
…while planning and preparing their next wave of attacks. According to the 2012 Human Security Report, between 1950 and 2004, 62 percent of cease-fires succeeded with no resumption of conflict…
When Freakonomics co-authors Steve Levitt and Stephen Dubner first met, one of them hated the other. Two decades later, Levitt grills Dubner about asking questions, growing the pie, and what…
Humans have a built-in “negativity bias,” which means we give bad news much more power than good. Would the Covid-19 crisis be an opportune time to reverse this tendency?
Not so long ago, G.E. was the most valuable company in the world, a conglomerate that included everything from light bulbs and jet engines to financial services and The Apprentice….
Also: why do we habituate to life’s greatest pleasures?
What does it mean to pursue something that everyone else thinks is nuts? And what does it take to succeed?
…while planning and preparing their next wave of attacks. According to the 2012 Human Security Report, between 1950 and 2004, 62 percent of cease-fires succeeded with no resumption of conflict…
Steve Levitt has so far occupied the interviewer chair on his new show, but in a special live event — recorded over Zoom and presented by WNYC and the Greene…
…they really are; being tall in high school gives you the confidence to succeed in the work force; etc. Case and Paxson suggest a completely new explanation for the link…
…from heavy drinkers to others. Thus, if public health programs were to succeed in reducing the rate of heavy drinking, [Social Security’s] future financial status would be even worse than…
…and largely guaranteed to succeed. In the space of a year or two we could have you zipping along the 405 or the LIE at the height of rush hour…
Caroline Paul is a thrill-seeker and writer who is on a quest to encourage women to get outside and embrace adventure as they age. She and Steve talk about fighting…
What makes a con succeed? Does snake oil actually work? And just how gullible is Angela?…
Human beings love to predict the future, but we’re quite terrible at it. So how about punishing all those bad predictions?
It’s awkward, random, confusing — and probably discriminatory too.
We worship the tradition of handing off a family business to the next generation. But is that really such a good idea?
…of survival and renewal that will save the suburb from itself. Success will breed success and courage. As more of these new suburban spaces succeed, without substantially changing the single-family…
According to a decades-long research project, the U.S. is not only the most individualistic country on earth; we’re also high on indulgence, short-term thinking, and masculinity (but low on “uncertainty…
Human beings love to predict the future, but we’re quite terrible at it. So how about punishing all those bad predictions?
…vertebrate species, take more than one mate if they can. If some succeed, others are left with none, so males naturally fight bitterly for mates. Antlers were the weaponry that…
No, it’s not your fault the economy crashed. Or that consumer preferences changed. Or that new technologies have blown apart your business model. But if you’re the C.E.O., it is…
He’s an economist who studies even weirder things than Steve. They discuss whether economics is the best of the social sciences, and why it’s a good idea to get a…
We worship the tradition of handing off a family business to the next generation. But is that really such a good idea?
…to place anonymous bets, using virtual money, on the likelihood that certain breast cancer drugs, currently in clinical trials, will succeed or fail. After the clinical trials conclude, researchers can…
…ones, which allowed Mollick to decompose the relative contributions of the designer versus the producer in making a game succeed or fail. For example, if a designer always generates blockbusters,…
…many years in a row, your ad has succeeded. If your product is selling successfully and winning design awards, your design has succeeded. And if you find new partners that…
Jane McGonigal designed a game to help herself recover from a traumatic brain injury — and she thinks playing games can help us all lead our best lives….
…Marginal Revolution thinks it’s so hard to get people to change that he has predicted that the site will not succeed: I’ve long predicted this won’t work; one group of…
In our collective zeal to reform schools and close the achievement gap, we may have lost sight of where most learning really happens — at home.
Kenji Lopez-Alt became a rock star of the food world by bringing science into the kitchen in a way that everyday cooks can appreciate. Then he dared to start his…
